Zimmerman's not-guilty verdict comes with 'mind-numbing' $2.5M bill

George Zimmerman was acquitted at his racially charged murder trial in July. He won but at a very steep cost.

Two months ago, he received a $2.5 million bill from his two lead attorneys, Mark O'Mara and Don West.

They had kept track of the time they worked on the case. Each billed him for about 3,000 hours, according to O'Mara.

In a high-profile but not very complicated murder case, the relationship between lawyer and client and money long ago grew complicated. Only now, though, is that issue out in the open.

O'Mara took on the case in April 2012, saying he would represent Zimmerman at no charge. Then he discovered that Zimmerman and his family were raising funds via a website and that money was pouring in, at least initially.

Throughout the case, even after the trial, O'Mara said he and West had not been paid a dime, although they hoped to be someday.

In an interview this week, O'Mara said Zimmerman paid them "a minute amount" after the trial.

O'Mara is still hopeful, he said, that there might someday be money he and West can collect.

In truth, they have already benefited financially from Zimmerman's legal-defense fund. Several months ago, O'Mara reported spending $52,550 on "law firm support and infrastructure."

O'Mara and his spokesman never provided a detailed accounting as to what that included, but they said it was such things as more computers, upgraded software, new phones and improved office security.

West and O'Mara also formed a private partnership, Timber Run Enterprises LLC, and bought the building next door to O'Mara's Concord Street office in downtown Orlando. That building, like O'Mara's office, is a former single-family home for which the lawyers paid $270,000.

It became the nerve center for the defense team, where O'Mara and West plus two other O'Mara law-firm employees and six law-school volunteers worked on the case.

O'Mara said he and West did not spend Zimmerman'sdefense-fund money to buy the building but that they leased it to O'Mara's firm, and defense-fund money was used to pay rent.

A Seminole County jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder July 13 for shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford the year before. Zimmerman told police he shot Trayvon in self-defense after the unarmed Miami Gardens teenager attacked him.

The killing and acquittal prompted demonstrations across the country and beyond.

But Zimmerman had supporters, too. Contributors gave more than $400,000 to his legal-defense fund, money that went toward case expenses and supporting Zimmerman and his wife — not paying O'Mara and West for the hours they were working.

O'Mara charges $400 an hour, West $350 an hour, rates that area attorneys describe as reasonable, given their years of experience and skill.

But Orlando criminal-defense attorney Richard Hornsby said the $2.5 million Zimmerman total is "mind-numbing."

He and other Central Florida lawyers said criminal-defense attorneys typically charge clients a flat rate upfront and do not bill by the hour — a practice that, in this case, sent legal fees through the roof.

In other cases, if the client has some but not enough money, lawyers will collect a nonrefundable retainer — for example, $30,000 — then bill against that until it's been used up, according to Steven Laurence, an Altamonte Springs criminal-defense attorney. Once that's exhausted, they would charge by the hour, he said.

Rick Jancha, a Winter Park attorney, said that because Zimmerman had no money when he retained O'Mara and West, they had little choice but to bill by the hour if they ever hoped to be paid.

While they worked on Zimmerman's case,Jancha said, they also had little ability to earn a living.

"That's one of those cases that's all-consuming and pretty much destroys your practice while you're involved in it," he said.

Zimmerman had no money when the case began, and he has no money now. According to court paperwork, he is broke, unemployed, going through a divorce and facing new charges in an unrelated domestic-violence case in Seminole County.

In a financial affidavit he filled out last week, Zimmerman wrote that he owned no property, had no savings and possessed just $144.

O'Mara told CNN'sAnderson Cooper last week that he hopes Zimmerman will get some money from a defamation suit he filed against NBCUniversal Media LLC. That case was put on hold in March, when both sides agreed to await the outcome of the murder trial.